It's a short list, but there are, in fact, other NFL teams that have struggled in the 21st century at the same level as the Cowboys. But none are as tortured by their own success, a fact the Cowboys must revisit while facing the Eagles twice in the next month.

It all starts Sunday night in Philadelphia, and the ugly specter of 2016 hangs over a Dallas team fighting to stay alive in the NFC East.

Some of you might be saying, "Wait, wasn't 2016 pretty good? A 13-3 season and team-record win streak and all that?''

Yes, but that only happened because of the great collapse of 2015, the 4-12 record that not only landed the Cowboys the No. 4 pick in the draft but, more important, sent Jason Garrett's staff to Mobile to coach the North in the Senior Bowl. They spent a week with North Dakota State quarterback Carson Wentz, who, at the time, was just starting to turn heads and jump into the top five on mock draft boards.

The Cowboys coaches and scouts liked what they saw in Wentz, but owner Jerry Jones provided this ominous quote after meeting with Wentz and being impressed: "We have the luxury of having Romo for the minimum of three to five more years.''

It was a silly statement at the time, given that Romo was 36 and facing surgery. It turned out not to be three to five more years. It turned out to be four more pass attempts.

It's unlikely the Cowboys ever would have considered trading up into the top two spots for a quarterback in that 2016 draft, but they were beaten to the punch, anyway, with the Rams moving up for Jared Goff and the Eagles climbing from No. 8 to No. 2 to take Wentz. The Eagles paid a big price -- two ones, a two and a three -- but we have seen them reap the rewards.

Prior to his forced inactivity last January during Philadelphia's Super Bowl run, Wentz led the Eagles to the best record in the NFC. He has returned from knee surgery and ranks seventh in the league's passer ratings. Since the start of 2017, Wentz has thrown 46 TD passes to go with nine interceptions.

Over that same span, Dak Prescott has thrown 32 TD passes and 18 interceptions. He has been unable to replicate the rookie success that led the team to push Romo into retirement.

For one season, the Cowboys were hailed as geniuses for landing Prescott -- who played for and led the South in that same Senior Bowl -- with the 135th pick. Wentz encountered normal rookie struggles, although the Eagles were probably better than their 7-9 record in 2016. They had a better point differential than the 11-5 New York Giants. Still, the Eagles finished last and Wentz looked like he had a long way to go while Prescott was leading Dallas to 11 straight wins and relegating Romo to clipboard duty in his final NFL season.

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By last season, as we learned from the documentary All or Nothing, Cowboys offensive coordinator Scott Linehan was instructing Prescott on how to get the ball to Dez Bryant by showing him video of Wentz throwing to Alshon Jeffery.

That had to hurt.

Today Wentz ranks as one of the best seven or eight quarterbacks in the league, and if you were picking with the future in mind, eliminating the likes of Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers from consideration, Wentz would be in your top three.

The Cowboys are trying to determine which top Prescott belongs to. They aren't even asking about top 10. They will take top 15 at this point and consider extending him on that basis.

But so much has gone wrong with the passing game this season, it's nearly impossible to know exactly what this team has at quarterback. Prescott has been sacked 28 times through the first eight games. His sack rate of once every 8.5 pass attempts is the highest in the league.

His passer rating places him right between Washington's Alex Smith and Tennessee's Marcus Mariota. His yards per pass attempt puts him between Mariota and Jacksonville's Blake Bortles.

None of that is any good.

Maybe that's all about to change with the arrival of Amari Cooper, who was solid enough in his debut Monday night. But keeping in mind that Cooper arrived at the cost of a first-round pick, the club's attempts to rectify all the things they did and didn't do in 2016 already hover over next year's draft.